A shift in perspective. It was sudden and sharp. That is what I experienced in the middle of my junior year. All was going well in my life, another year the same as the previous two. I was getting hyped for the basketball season to begin. I had always loved school and learning, but at that point in time my focus was solely on playing the sport that I excelled at. However, once the season began that was when my year drastically changed. We had multiple practices and began playing opponents, yet rather than feeling in shape from all of the conditioning that we had done I began to feel worse by the day. Slowly my joints started to ache spreading from my fingers to my hands, to my knees and finally my body as a whole. This is not what I wanted…show more content… All the while we still don’t know what is wrong with me. It could be anything from Lupus to Leukemia and when I began to process that those serious diseases could be what was causing my pain, that is when I began to think. I began to wonder that if it all ends today what impact have I had on the world? I mean I have obviously impacted my family and those I know, but is that really enough for me. Am I content with that? For me that is not enough. I start to think that the foundation of my whole world (which was basketball) will be done in four to eight years, and for what. Twenty years from now who will remember what I did in the sport? Next to no one, that’s who. So I stop thinking about basketball and begin to think about the future, my future. How can I contribute to society, how can I have a positive impact. My new view of success was defined not by being an all-conference athlete or making the most money in life, but by improving my knowledge of the world around me. It became my goal to further my education so that I may make a positive contribution to